d been a division of sentiment in the North, and many thought
that by patient effort the seceding States could be brought back into
the Union--that there would never be any serious fighting--but now all
that was changed.

In a measure the Northerners were unprepared for war, and the regular
army was then very small, but one month after the inauguration of
President Lincoln he issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers
for three months' service only, and the war between North and South
began in earnest.

In every part of the country there was one absorbing topic of
conversation, while men were being hastily gathered into companies,
officers were forming their regiments to march to the scene of conflict,
women were hurriedly joining hospital brigades, and the government was
rushing the purchase and manufacture of ammunition and weapons, and
collecting an adequate supply of horses and army-wagons, camp equipments
and provisions and uniforms for the soldiers.

In every State there was an individual flurry of preparation while men
and women made ready to leave homes and families, for the sake of their
country. When the first enlistment took place, Annie Etheredge, a young
woman whose childhood and early girlhood had been passed in Wisconsin,
was in Detroit visiting some friends, and the set of young women with
whom she associated became so filled with the enthusiasm of war that
nineteen of them offered themselves to go as nurses with the Second
Michigan volunteers under Colonel Richardson. This offer was accepted
and all bade brave farewells to their families and friends, and set out
with the regiment, to help and to heal wherever opportunity offered. But
theirs were hands and hearts not accustomed to such work, and at the end
of a few months, eighteen of them returned to their homes, having been
unable to bear the sights and service of the battlefield. But it was not
so with Annie Etheredge. Her brave spirit and heroic character never
gave way under the most severe strain, and as we follow her through
those sombre days, we give thanks for such a pure, strong example of
what a woman, however young, may be. To Tennessee went Annie with her
regiment, and was transferred to Michigan, where she had many friends
and was with that regiment in every battle in which they took part.

It took very little time to discover the value of her services and
General Berry, who for a long time commanded the brigade to which
Annie's